I am privileged like many people in our area to know Ian Robertson, former councillor in Walsall in the West Midlands, and in previous years, the cabinet member for health on the council. His track record of service to the local community and his humanitarian work abroad, marks him out as an example of someone whose faith guides his every actions.
A serious stroke a few years back doesn’t appear to have knocked him off his stride, if anything, it made him more determined to continue his service to others. As well as his work in the community, Ian is also an Elder at the local United Reformed Church in the Blakenall area of Walsall. It is a church where I have had the privilege of leading worship on several occasions, especially as they always seem to have the extra thick chocolate biscuits for the coffee and tea after the service. Very important as any preacher will tell you!
Recently Ian returned from one of his regular journeys to Pakistan and the Kashmir region, where he officially opened a new school catering for 140 children of varying abilities. It is yet another remarkable milestone in humanitarian activity going back some four decades.
Ian’s motivation is simply being a Christian and with it, having a deep and abiding love for humanity. At the age of 21 he made a pact with God that if let, he would devote his life to serving humanity, to build a school and provide clean water for those places in God’s kingdom that had none.
It is with great pleasure therefore that I share Ian’s inspirational story on this blog. Please feel free to add your comments in the box at the end.
It all started back in 1990 when in Romania, there were appalling newspaper reports about abandoned children left behind after the fall of the Ceausescu regime. I set off armed with a suitcase of drugs to a village called Tatari, north of Bucharest, and set about restoring an orphanage of 400 totally abandoned children.
During subsequent visits we restored their living conditions, installed music and TV to stimulate their senses and provide entertainment and looked after their oral health. We also started a toy factory making wooden toys to sell and provide an income making it a model for a local cottage industry.
The war in the Balkans (former Yugoslavia) a couple of years later, resulted in my helping to organise and participate in over 15 convoys to Serbia and Republica Srpska, delivering over 400 tons of aid. This necessitated my having to obtain an HGV licence, which not only was unusual for a dentist, but on occasion having to park 40-ton lorries outside both the dental practice and my house! (editor’s note: a man clearly blessed with understanding neighbours).
I also learnt how to obtain UN certification and the special medical permits from New York to allow passage across into Serbia with medicines and supplies to an isolated community, again taking dental equipment to try and deal with the zugboljia (toothache) requests in the refugee camps we visited.
Dental health and oral hygiene are major issues particularly in poorer countries around the world as well as those where conflict rages. As a dentist I have witnessed the serious decay rates in some young children who have been allowed free access to some form of sugar solution whether this be sweetened feeds as a baby, or the sugar comforter placed in the mouth of the infant to subdue a tendency to cry. The result being total erosion of the primary teeth and subsequent early loss and a further serious rate of decay of the first molars.
To alleviate the worst effects of dental decay, we negotiated locally the purchasing of toothbrushes and toothpaste at a rate of around 30p each in order to target and treat those with a high decay rate, supplying thousands of children in the process.
After the Balkans, next came the issues of the conflict between parts of Kashmir. I had a friend who has a house in Kashmir in the Bhimber district and so made a number of visits there installing a dental surgery and treating patients in another hospital in Gurjarat. This again involved going round many local schools and military establishments delivering an Infant Oral Health (IOH) message and distributing toothpaste and brushes.
I made a number of visits to schools in Kashmir where they either had no toilets, fresh water or had suffered earthquake damage.
Plans were made to build a new hospital in the Kasgumma area. This was delivered and the other five schools which suffered earthquake damage have also been rebuilt.
In partnership with a local builder and with donated land, we managed to build a new school for 70 disabled children and 70 able bodied children which I officially opened in August 2024 as the images show.
On previous visits to Kashmir, I helped to establish a number of free eye camps using volunteer eye surgeons to treat cataract patients who had their sight restored after living a begging existence before.
I have also visited a school site in Harare, Zimbabwe, where we have managed to build and establish a new primary school for over 80 children who cannot normally afford to attend school. While in Zimbabwe we also distributed via a lorry, large amounts of food parcels to give to those villages that were exceptionally poor.
The future beckons that I return to Pakistan and to Zimbabwe to see that new schools expand, install more water wells and new toilets for the children where they are needed and of course, deliver those important lectures to try and reduce the pain and suffering of all those child dental patients.
I always make the point of saying; that when I come as a Christian to a Muslim country, it is as an act of helping humanity, showing no bias toward any one group or religion.
It says in the Book of Proverbs that the human mind plans the way, but it is God who directs the steps. I feel that this best describes my mission in life.
Finding the opportunities to serve, but allowing God to direct my efforts.